Citations:churl

English citations of churl

			1678
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1. (feudalism, obsolete except historical)
   1. A free peasant (as opposed to a serf) of the lowest rank, below an earl and a thane; a freeman; also (more generally), a person without royal or noble status.
   2. A bondman or serf.
2. (by extension)
   1. (derogatory) A rough, surly, ill-bred person; a boor. [from 14th c.]
      • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC, pages 106–107:

        Thus ſay the common People that knovv him, A Saint abroad, and a Devil at home: His poor Family finds it ſo, he is ſuch a churl, ſuch a railer at, and ſo unreaſonable vvith his Servants, that they neither knovv hovv to do for, or ſpeak to him.